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Italy is facing one of the worst floods in the country in a hundred years, as the floods have claimed the lives of at least nine people, while many people are considered missing. Many residents have been evacuated, leaving many homeless, amid great efforts by rescuers, who are facing difficult conditions and heavy rains.
According to the British Guardian newspaper, the floods were concentrated in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, where I counted 23 rivers bursting their banks and 280 landslides that hit 41 cities and towns, displacing about 20,000 people. An elderly couple were killed after being trapped inside their home in Kafa village, while an 80-year-old man drowned in his basement, another man died after falling into a well, and another man died after being hit by a landslide in his garden.
The area was hit by heavy rains throughout the night, as rescuers worked around the clock to rescue residents trapped in their homes, which included the elderly and the disabled. These floods are the most destructive in the country in a century, with many residents suffering severe damage to their property and infrastructure.
Firefighters carried out some 2,000 rescue operations throughout the flood-affected area, including areas in central Marche. And 40 elderly people were rescued from a nursing home in a short period of time after the police received many distress calls.
“My neighbors are elderly, one of them has Alzheimer’s disease. They are unable to leave by themselves. Someone has to come. There is a lot of muck,” said a caller in Venza, one of the hardest-hit cities.
Elderly people who had taken refuge on rooftops were rescued using helicopters, and entire families were evacuated. Volunteers described the process of moving people from their homes as arduous. “We worked all night in the pouring rain,” Paolo Meoni, a volunteer in Cesena, told La Nazioni newspaper. “In some cases, we carried the elderly and the disabled in our arms and brought them on a boat to the rescuers, who took them to the shelters.”
He added, “The water was 40 cm high, but the heavy rain that continued until 6 am made things worse.”
